Day 51 - Simontornya to Szekszárd

 63.6 km - Total so far 2,850.60 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 51 

We are safe and secure in Szekszárd, Hungary.

Once again we had a super ride under sunshine and puffy clouds. We rode over undulating terrain (the french word “vallonneux” is more appropriate but it translates to hilly. We had a nice tailwind so we got to ride at a good pace.

In planning the ride last night, we identified two places that might be challenging: a 3 km ride on a dirt trail and almost 6 kms on a 80 kph road. The information on the trail came from the absence of Google pictures, if the Google man has not been there, it is probably not nice. As for the road, the information came from the Sultans Trail guide book “…the 6 kilometre busy motorway towards Szekszárd.” 

The trail was not pleasant. It was so bumpy that we just couldn’t get any momentum going and it would have taken a good hour+ to cover 3 kms. It was also very hard work. We spotted a parallel trail and decided to give it a go. It was a lot less work.

There is not much we could do about the busy motorway. Vehicles gave us the expected clearance but they passed by us at more than 80 kph. It required a lot of concentration to look ahead and pick the safest path along the less than perfect pavement. There is no proper shoulder on that road with the tall grass coming right up to the asphalt, you have no idea what that surface under the grass is like. The pucker factor was somewhat higher than usual. The distance on the motorway was closer to 3.4 kms but it felt like a full 6 kms.

As we move East, we are discovering that there is an increasing mention of Turks and of the Ottoman Empire in respect to historical references.  The village where we had lunch, Harc, existed in the bronze age. It was depopulated during the Ottoman period when the inhabitants fled to the wetlands of the River Kapos. Same goes with the Benedictine Chapel. It was reinforced as a fort and used by the Turks from 1541.

Tomorrow we head to Mohács and our last night in Hungary. Our next country is Serbia.